Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you, Sir. (Operator Instructions). Your first question comes from Meredith Adler – Lehman Brothers.
Meredith Adler – Lehman Brothers
Good morning. A couple of questions. I’d like to start by talking a little bit about sales. First question is, the legacy assets, the Cub, Shop ?n Save, etcetera, were all more price oriented than the acquired asset. Are you seeing better sales performance at those stores?
Jeffrey Noddle
Well, good morning, Meredith. You know we don’t normally comment specifically on those, but I would make a general comment that where you are, where you have a history and a foundation built with a customer on an everyday pricing kind of operation it does give you an advantage generally during this time period. You failed to mention Save-A-Lot, which I would mention in that same context. Obviously Save-A-Lot is very well positioned in this current economic circumstance we are in. Save-A-Lot continues, as we commented last year, to have another very solid year and we’re pleased with the progress we see in some other markets they have entered as they continue to open stores and also have now turn the corner on a number of those stores open more than a year.
Generally you’re right that the legacy SUPERVALU assets were a more EDLP oriented, generally speaking. I do think that those are, for the moment, better positioned in the economy, but we have many markets that we have positive comps in that are outside of those that I mentioned and some that we don’t. I think it’s as much also driven by the economic circumstances by region. A lot of people have commented about the west, in California, for example.
So as much as that is one, the underlying factor is I do think the economic realities by region are another factor as well.
Meredith Adler – Lehman Brothers
And then you have lowered your ID guidance for the year, but you still have a meaningful improvement over the current trend. Could you just spell out for us what you see as being the key drivers? Is it clearly the remodels, merchandising, and marketing, but could you, you don’t have to give us numbers, but give us a sense of what’s going to drive that?
Jeffrey Noddle
We actually have this broken down by line item where this sales improvement is going to come from, but you’ve mentioned the major factors already. The remodels, just the fact that we’re getting more scaled in our remodels and we’re turning the corner on some important ones. For example, I just visited a few weeks ago, we redid all the stores in the Santa Barbara, California, area. I think it’s five or six stores. All remodelled, reintroduced, very strong results, even in light of difficult fires and things they’ve had out there. They were just getting more substance in the remodel. More of our merchandising initiatives are being not only put into the remodel stores, but also into all stores. And we’re migrating those around the company. Our marketing competency continues to grow and build. We’re not in a position where we have a thing called full analytics on who our customers are, who they aren’t, what their wants and needs are, what are trends, who are our best customers, where’s our opportunity, down to even local stores and certainly local markets. The use of that information continues to grow. And I’ve said at the back half of this year is when I expect results from those. And that’s not changed. Own brands I already commented on the strength of. Generally our comparative numbers are weaker in the back half of the year as well.
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